Oppportunity & Crisis

The opportunity that lies hidden any every crisis does not become apparent until all the facts of the given situation are acknowledged and fully accepted. As long as a person denies the fact, tries to escape them, or wishes things were different, the opportunity does not expose itself.
Eckhart Tolle

Sitting Quielty

Sitting quietly, doing nothing,

Spring comes and the grass grows by itself.

Zenrin
The Gospel according to Zen

Fault Finding

Here is a fun and interesting little faultfinding exercise that came to me on day. Most people will probably find it interesting and insightful. Although it is not generally good idea to find fault in others, there is a purpose to this particular exercise.

Find a nice quiet time or space with a pen and sheet of notebook paper. Maybe even a cup of coffee, tea or soda pop. Think of people you know or have known, people that anger you that you disagree with or have had difficulties with. Take deep breath and stay clam, you do not want to regenerate any anger or bad feelings, but rather look at these people objectively, in a friendly way. 

It is important that you try to implement little bit of kindness and acceptance of all for this next step. Do not dwell on anything for very long. Calmly begin to write down things about a person that you do not like, the underlying causes of you frustration anger with them. Try to be as general as possible, not overly specific. Do not use names. Be gentle, not harsh. Do not judge them; just let the thoughts come out of your pen and go to the next one calmly and matter-of-factly. Perhaps even do it in the spirit of constructive criticism. If a feeling of anger rises, try to forgive them. They are only human.

When one person runs out, go to another. You can return later if anything else enters your mind. Just have fun and take just enough time to finish the exercise without wasting too much time… Most people will have little trouble finding a few common faults in people. Please don’t get nit-picky... no need for that.

Now look at your list of all thee faults and quirks. Read it calmly. Now be objective. Who does it sound like? Anyone you know? Anything familiar?

Most likely you have just described yourself! You find these over half these faults in you either present or past, something you are guilty of to some degree or have a tendency towered yourself. Most likely it will be considerably more than half. Be honest now; look at it intellectually, and philosophically as well. Drop your ego and protectiveness. 

It is you - The world is a mirror.